History
The term "Chief Apostle" was first used officially to describe Jesus Christ in the New Covenant Scriptures, Book of Hebrews, Chapter 3, verse 1, where he is also called the High Priest. As far as the controversies regarding which of the remaining 11, then 12 and then more apostles after that which includes then Saul, later called Paul, Scripture itself does not say. It may very well have been that they continued to follow the Messiah as their head. Indeed that is what the Bible itself promotes.
The following are other views on chief apostles and the religions that therefore must flow out of those beliefs. One system in common use today is used by Messsianic apostles who believe James "the Just" was Chief Apostle, in Jerusalem, following Jesus (they use the Hebrew form of his name, Y'shua, in various spellings) return to his Father in Heaven. A similar system is used by Catholic churches worldwide, varying from Roman Catholics, to Anglican Catholics, to Coptic, Russian etc. Each with a differing view on who is, or was, a Chief Apostle originally, and sometimes, even now.
A similar view introduced by minister Friedrich Krebs and can be compared to the one Apostle Peter had 2,000 years ago amongst the original Apostles (He is seen as the first Chief Apostle in the early church). Before Krebs introduced it, the title was already used in the Catholic Apostolic Church, however with a completely different meaning (as the German word "Stamm" means "tribe" and was used to describe the working areas (=tribes) of the apostles).
Former Chief Apostles:
| Name | Birth-Death | Birthplace | Place of Death | Working Period |
| Friedrich Krebs | 1832–1905 | Elend (Harz) (Germany) | Braunschweig (Germany) | 1895–1905 |
| Hermann Niehaus | 1848–1932 | Steinhagen (Germany) | Quelle (Germany) | 1905–1930 |
| Johann Gottfried Bischoff | 1871–1960 | Unter-Mossau (Germany) | Karlsruhe (Germany) | 1930–1960 |
| Walter Schmidt | 1891–1981 | Neuemühle (Germany) | Dortmund (Germany) | 1960–1975 |
| Ernst Streckeisen | 1905–1978 | St. Gallen (Switzerland) | Cape Town (South Africa) | 1975–1978 |
| Hans Urwyler | 1925–1994 | Spiegel (Switzerland) | Bern (Switzerland) | 1978–1988 |
| Richard Fehr | 1938 - | Flaach (Switzerland) | -- | 1988–2005 |
| Wilhelm Leber | 1947 - | Herford (Germany) | -- | 2005 - |
Read more about this topic: Chief Apostle
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“America is the only nation in history which, miraculously, has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”
—Attributed to Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929)
“The whole history of civilisation is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“The history of all Magazines shows plainly that those which have attained celebrity were indebted for it to articles similar in natureto Berenice—although, I grant you, far superior in style and execution. I say similar in nature. You ask me in what does this nature consist? In the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque: the fearful coloured into the horrible: the witty exaggerated into the burlesque: the singular wrought out into the strange and mystical.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)